Diego Della Valle, Chairman and CEO of the Group, commented, “We had a strong start of the year, with revenue growth in all regions, confirming that the work done was beginning to produce its results. The outbreak of the epidemic in China and its rapid spread all over the world have changed every perspective and forced us to review everything, giving priority to many new problems, often unknown, that we had to manage suddenly.”

“As far as the second half of the year, we will remain very prudent, but with great attention to the evolution of the markets, to be ready and responsive to the first positive signs. We are paying great attention to strategies of cost cutting and increasing efficiency, that will give us good results. I take also the opportunity to thank all our managers, who are doing a huge and excellent job in optimizing everything,” continued Diego.

“Considering that nothing will be the same as before, we are preparing a brand new design, marketing and communication plan, that takes into account the people’s habit of using the web more and more, which in the future will be increasingly protagonist in spreading products, stories and all that which will be used to communicate and will also help our e-commerce
division, which is growing very solidly,” added Diego.

In the first quarter of 2020, consolidated sales were 152.8 million Euros, down 29.4% from Q1 2019, also due to the very prudent approach used for deliveries to both the distribution channels.

Currency fluctuations gave a small positive contribution; at constant exchange rates, meaning by using the average exchange rates of Q1 2019, including the related effects of hedging contracts, sales would have been 152 million Euros, down 29.7% from Q1 2019.

After a good start of sales in the first weeks of the year, the results of the stores were visibly influenced by the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, given the progressive closures of retail businesses in all geographic areas and the drop of traffic from tourists.

More specifically, at the end of January the first store closures began in China and the flow of tourists from that area was blocked, with a negative impact on the traffic worldwide. Starting in March, the store closures were extended to Europe and, subsequently, to America. Only in mid-March, stores in China were progressively reopened, with a gradual recovery of activity.

The impact of the pandemic significantly affected sales results for all group’s brands, regions, product categories and distribution channels. Therefore, this press release contains the tables with the usual sales breakdowns, without additional comments.